Privacy Policy

Privacy, Cookies & Data Protection

Privacy

Axis Solicitors Ltd is dedicated to protecting your privacy and maintaining the secrecy of your personal data. 

This privacy statement explains how Axis Solicitors (also known as “Axis Solicitors,” “us,” or “we”) uses and safeguards any information you provide. This policy applies to all personal data that we gather, use, or otherwise handle in connection with your use of our website, your communication with us, or when we assist clients or potential clients with immigration law-related questions or needs.

This policy applies regardless of how we obtain the information, such as when you use this website, contact us afterwards, or through any other channel. 

Your privacy is something we take very seriously. We can use any information we request from you or collect while you use this website to identify you will only be used in accordance with this privacy statement.

Any personal information handled by Axis Solicitors Ltd in line with this Privacy Policy is controlled by Axis Solicitors, which is deemed the legal “data controller” of your personal information. The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has assigned Axis Solicitors Ltd the registration number Registration reference: ZA496330. Our data protection officer is Faret Bibi. 

By updating this website, we may occasionally modify this policy. You should periodically review this page to ensure that any changes are acceptable.

What is personal information? 

Personal information is anything anyone can use to identify you, such as your name, contact information, and immigration status. The information used to identify you may include information about how you use our website and mobile applications.

When and how are personal data obtained?

We might collect information from you as part of our activities; this includes information automatically collected when you visit our website or that you provide when you get in touch with us to inquire about our services or to see how we can assist you. You can contact us via phone, email, or our website’s contact form.

We must gather information from you and other parties to provide legal services as part of our client acceptance process. Additionally, we collect your personal information when you retain us for legal assistance and when providing that assistance to you.

• Or, we might learn details about you from your interactions with one or more of our employees or customers.
• What personally identifiable data about you do we gather and process?
• We may gather high-level data about the sites you have visited and your location when you use our website or any related social media. 

When someone visits our website or blog, we do not automatically gather or store information that would allow us to identify someone. We may collect the following details when you contact us by phone, email, or through our website:

• name and occupation;
• contact information, including a phone number and email address;
• data about the population, such as a postcode;
• basic details regarding your employment, job title, and relationships with people;

When you tell us about your legal concerns using our web enquiry form, please include the following information: 

• Basic information about your legal/immigration status or the nature of your legal issue; Any further information or evidence you prefer to submit.
• We may also gather and process more data when you use our services. For example, as part of our client acceptance process, we may need more information and documentation on your identity and background checks.
• Information you offer about your travel and dietary demands to join meetings with us;
• Monetary data about the payment of fees;
• We create Personal data when providing you with legal services, either on your behalf or on behalf of another person; this could incorporate particular data categories;
• Any further details about you that you may choose to share with us.

Sometimes helping a client also requires that the client give us personal data about someone else. That personal data will be obtained, held onto, processed, saved, and destroyed under this policy. Insofar as it is permissible and reasonably required to do so to deliver the legal service agreed upon with our client, we will only retain such indirectly received personal information and documentation relating to individuals other than our clients.

The legal justification for keeping, utilising, or otherwise processing your data

The following legal justifications underlie how we utilise your personal data:

• To carry out an agreement, such as helping you (or one of our clients) with your legal case when you hire or direct us;
• To adhere to legal and regulatory requirements;
• For proper commercial purposes, To establish or use as a defence in legal claims or procedures.

What do we do with your personal information?

Axis Solicitors Ltd collects and processes information about you in several ways. 

We use high-level data about website visits to help us improve our website and make it more appealing and valuable to our clients.

When you send us an enquiry and provide personal information, we use this to assist you as a potential client. We need this information to understand your needs and provide better service. 

When you engage our services as a client, we collect, create, process, store and use the collected personal information in the course of and in connection with the services we provide. We will process background and identification information to comply with our anti-money laundering and compliance checks. We will also process personal data for the work we do for you.  

In summary, we use personal information: 

• To improve our services, including this website;
• To provide the information requested by you;
• To manage and administer our relationship with you and our clients;
• To provide legal services to you and our clients;
• For internal record keeping and to meet our regulatory, legal, and risk management obligations, including establishing, exercising or defending legal claims;
• For recruitment;
• We may periodically send you updates or newsletters about developments in immigration law or other information about us and our services which we believe you may be interested in using the email address you have provided (you may unsubscribe at any time);
• Occasionally, we also use your information to contact you for market research or to request a reference. We may contact you by email, phone or mail etc. 
• We can also use the information to customise the website according to your interests.

Cookies

The main functionality of cookies is to allow web applications to respond to your queries as any other individual would. Web applications can tailor their operations to your needs, likes, and dislikes.

We use traffic log cookies to analyse which website pages get more visits. In particular, portions of this website use Google Analytics, a web analytics service that Google, Inc. (“Google”) provides. Google Analytics uses these cookies to help the website analyse how users use the website. 

The information collected by the cookies about your website use is usually transmitted to and stored by Google on their servers based in the United States. Google uses this information to evaluate/analyse your website usage, compiles website activity reports for the website operators and provides other services relating to the website activity and internet usage. It helps us analyse data about webpage traffic and gives us insights on how to improve our website to tailor it to our client’s needs. 

Please note we only use this information for statistical analysis, which removes the data from the system. Google may transfer or share this information with third parties if they are legally required to do so or when it engages third parties to process the information on its behalf. Your IP address will not be associated with any other data held by Google. 

You can always refuse the use of cookies by selecting the appropriate settings on your web browser; however, please note that by doing so, you may not be able to use the website’s full functionality. By using this website, you consent to process your data by Google in the way described above and for the purposes mentioned above.

Overall, cookies help us provide a better website experience as they enable us to monitor which pages you are visiting frequently & finding helpful and vice versa. The cookies do not give us access to your computer, any other devices you use, or any information about you other than the data you share with us.

You have the right to accept or decline cookies at any time; please note that most web browsers automatically accept cookies, but you may modify your browser setting to decline cookies. It may, however, prevent you from taking full advantage of the website.

Links to other websites

Our website may also contain links to other websites of interest to you. However, please note that once you have clicked on these external links to leave our website, we have no control over that website. Hence, we cannot be held responsible for the protection and privacy of information you provide whilst visiting such sites, and this privacy policy does not govern sites. You should exercise caution and consider the appropriate privacy policy applicable to the relevant website.

Disclosing your personal information

In connection with the work we are undertaking for you, it may be necessary to disclose your personal information to third parties, such as the Court and the Home Office, or when we instruct experts on your behalf. We will only do this if we have your permission or are legally required. 

We may need(or may be required) to share Personal information with regulatory authorities, courts, tribunals, government and law enforcement agencies where necessary. We will always make reasonable efforts to notify you of such disclosures unless the law prevents us.

Sometimes, we share some of your personal information with trusted third parties with whom we have service contracts to deliver our service. Those may include our professional advisers, solicitors, accountants and auditors, IT service providers, and suppliers of cloud-based IT infrastructure detailed below. A complete list of providers is maintained, reviewed and updated regularly and is available to clients upon request. 

We will never sell, lease or hire your personal information to any third party for marketing or other purposes.

Keeping your personal information safe

We are constantly working to ensure that your information is secure, and we use a variety of IT and physical measures to achieve this. 

We use a selection of carefully picked cloud-based service providers to provide an efficient and modern service. These include Google Drive, LEAP, XERO, GHL and Microsoft 365, a cloud-based case management system. 

We take great care to ensure that all providers we share information with and that the platforms we use comply with the highest internet and online security levels. We have reviewed and approved their data security and privacy policies and have written contracts to safeguard your data. 

Some of these service providers are hosted overseas, so using some platforms may involve transferring your personal data to locations from within to outside of the European Economic Area (“EEA”) and back again. The level of protection offered in some countries outside of the EEA may be less than that within the EEA. For this reason, we subject overseas service providers’ security and data policies to the highest levels of scrutiny. Where our service providers process your personal data outside of the EEA while providing services to us, our written agreement with them contains appropriate measures that provide proper data security. 

Further, we have taken reasonable steps to protect your information against unauthorised access and unlawful processing, accidental loss, damage and destruction. 

However, any personal data you submit via our website, or email is at your own risk.

For how long do we keep your personal information? 

You can be sure that your personal information will be kept and stored safely under our data retention policy. This policy sets out our retention period and destruction dates concerning the various categories of data and personal information we hold.

We will only retain personal information for the purpose for which it was collected and used and for as long as is reasonably necessary.

We will set and adhere to destruction dates that are proportionate and reasonable, taking into account our legal, regulatory and record-keeping requirements to retain material for a minimum retention & limitation period for taking legal action, good practice and our business purposes.

What can you do to help?

We take great care to keep your information safe. You can also do some things to keep your information secure: 

• If you contact us via email, ensure your devices are pin-locked and securely encrypted.
• Ensure you have good encryption and virus protection on your computers, ipads, phones and any other electronic devices.
• Keep any log-in details confidential.
• Be vigilant about unsolicited emails that ask you to confirm any passwords or bank details or ask you to send money to a third party. These are likely to be fraudulent ‘phishing’ emails which are the illegal gathering of personal information by deception.

Access to your information and rights:

The GDPR provides certain rights for data subjects. 

You are entitled to request details of personal information we hold about you.  

Please note, if you request personal information held about you that has been provided to us by one of our clients in connection with their legal matter, it is unlikely that the law will permit us to give this to you. Such material is covered by legal professional privilege.

You have the right to request us to rectify the personal information we hold about you. If you believe any information we hold about you needs to be corrected, contact us immediately to put this right.

You have the right to request us to delete the personal information we hold about you, which is often referred to as the “right to be forgotten” and will be subject to any regulatory or legal requirements that we may have to retain a copy of your personal data for a specified period.

You have the right to restrict us from processing your personal information, to stop unauthorised transfers of this information to any third party and (in some circumstances) the right to have personal information that we hold transferred to another organisation.  

Furthermore, if you wish to object to processing your personal information, or you already have provided us with your consent to processing that information and then later choose to withdraw it, we will respect that choice under our legal obligations. 

Please note that your objection or withdrawal of consent could mean that we cannot continue to provide our services to you. Further, even after you have withdrawn consent, we may still be permitted or required to process your personal information in connection with our legal and regulatory obligations and exercise and defend our legal rights. 

If you would like to o exercise any of the abovementioned rights, please email us at contact@axis.lawyer or complaints@axis.lawyer. Or write to us. We will respond to all requests for personal information to provide, rectify, delete, process, restrict or data transfer within 14 days of receiving the written request by email or letter. If we cannot comply with a request within 14 days, we will explain that to you and the reasons why and tell you how long we need to comply with your request.

You have the right to complain concerning our processing of your personal information with the Information Commissioner’s Office.

More information and contact details are available on the UK Government website at https://www.gov.uk/data-protection/make-a-complaint.

We need to ensure that your personal information is accurate and up to date. Please remember to advise us of any changes to your information by emailing us at contact@axis.lawyer. For removal according to GDPR, contact us via complaints@axis.lawyer

Data Protection

We use your personal data primarily to provide legal services to you but also for related purposes such as administration, billing and record keeping and to inform you of our services and events that may interest you.

Our use of your personal data is subject to your instructions, the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR), other relevant UK legislation and our professional duty of confidentiality.

We take your privacy very seriously. Our Privacy policy contains important information on how and why we collect, process and store your personal data. It also explains your rights concerning your personal data. The Privacy policy is available on our website at https://axis.lawyer/privacy-policy/. Do not hesitate to contact us if you would like us to send a copy to you or if you would prefer us to explain our Privacy policy verbally.

We use third-party service providers (including ‘cloud’ service providers) to help us deliver efficient, cost-effective legal services, including document/information hosting, sharing, transfer, analysis, processing or storage. We ensure all third-party service providers operate under service agreements consistent with our legal and professional obligations, including confidentiality, privacy and data protection. 

Suppose you instruct us to use an alternative provider for storing, sharing or exchanging documents/information. In that case, we are not responsible for the security of the data or the provider’s security standards.

Please note that we may record telephone calls and monitor emails for training, regulatory and compliance purposes. You consent by contacting us (by email, filling in the contact form, telephone, message or using any other communication medium) that we can contact you for marketing purposes.

We may use the information you provide to send you updates (by email, text, telephone or post) about legal developments that might interest you and information about our services, including exclusive offers, promotions or new services/products.

You can opt out of receiving promotional communications at any time by:

• contacting us at contact@axis.lawyer
• via complaints@axis.lawyer
• using the ‘unsubscribe’ link in emails

Contact

If you have any queries concerning any of the above, please do not hesitate to contact Axis Solicitors Ltd at contact@axis.lawyer